Arts & Crafts

Winter here in Winnipeg is cold and seems to go on forever. So what’s a mom to do to keep her little one occupied? Simple! Just crack open the cupboards and let them play! No, I don’t necessarily mean the pots and pans or the Tupperware, although both are great options. We like messy play over here, so of course we are in the pantry. This really simple activity bought us a playdate, two happy babies, and about 45 minutes of play and exploration that didn’t require too much baby proofing.

We used a drop cloth (plastic tablecloth from the dollar store) to contain the mess, some construction paper, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and two drops of food colouring per container.

Painting with toddlers and preschoolers is really, really hard, even in the good times, but they love nothing more than seeing how the streak of a brush changes a piece of paper. This is a pretty simple way to bring paint into your artful home.

If you think back to your childhood I am sure you can recall a memory of digging in the dirt, squishing play dough/cookie dough between your hands, sliding your hands in finger paint, splashing in water, or wiggling your toes in the sand. These are often some of our ealiest memories and for good reason. Children learn through engaging their senses!

On November 6, I broke my foot practicing a ballet number I was supposed to perform at my studio’s preschool recital of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas. The kind of fracture I have is actually referred to as the dancer’s break as it is very common injury for dancers.

Here in Edmonton there’s enough snow right now, so I thought it would be a good idea to add it to some of our playtime. And what kid doesn’t love to play with snow, in the house!

I created this invitation like so many others. I set out supplies and snow in a thoughtful way and just sat back and enjoyed watching my child explore, learn and play! If you are not familiar with what an “Invitation to Play” is, pop over to my Halloween Invitation post here, where I take some time to talk about it.

To be honest, I wasn’t actually planning on sharing this craft. I really didn’t think it was good enough or fun enough to warrant recommending it to others, but then we did it! The little artist LOVED it! Once I started seeing how much she was enjoying this activity, I quickly grabbed my camera so I would have photos to guide you through this project.

Today I created my first Invitation to Play. You may be wondering, what is an invitation to play? Pop on over here, Anna, a blogger at The Imagination Tree, has an amazing post about it.

If you don’t have time to read the entire post, basically an invitation to play is “a little set up of play materials for your child to come and discover and play with in any way they choose.” (Anna , http://theimaginationtree.com/)

What you need:

I found this fun craft on Pinterest and it piqued my interest because it wasn’t the traditional pumpkin Halloween toddler craft (which we have done many of already). I wasn’t sure how my daughter, Adeline, age 3, would receive this, but she had a blast!

Frankenstein has been hanging in our dining room window ever since we made it and Adeline even asked me if I could find her a Frankenstein costume; thankfully not for Halloween (we already have those picked out), but just for around the house.

This summer my girls and I have been adding little "extras" to their room decor including an art display board my handy husband created, adding 3-D butterflies and flowers to their focus wall, dance photos (finally) in frames and hung, and a shelf each to display their sculptures, pottery, canvases and other special treasures. I am trying to teach my girls to take pride in their room and their creations in the hopes this will entice them to clean their room everyday without having to go into nagging mommy mode.